The History of~The Cold War (Part 3: The First Conflicts)
As we left off from our previous page (click here) we covered the Peace Organizations: NATO and the Warsaw Pact. this is page 3 of this series about The Cold War and we will cover some of the first conflicts of the Cold War. Now, as mentioned before that the Cold War is called "The Cold War" is because the USA, USSR, and their respective allies never directly fought each other on any large scale. But that doesn't mean there weren't any military conflicts during the Cold War. Because there was the Chinese Civil War, The Korean War, and the Vietnam War. '''Disclaimer: '''The wars that will be mentioned on this page are going to be short and oversimplified, I will provide links for the pages that cover these conflicts in more detail. Chinese Civil War Since the Xinhai Rebellion ended the rule of the Qing Dynasty (which dominated China for nearly 300 years) in 1912, China was left at a crossroads as groups of people were fighting on who gets to rule China which included a newly-formed republic (led by Sun-Yat Sen) and those who wanted to keep the Qing Empire in power (led by Yuan Shikai). By 1927, only 2 powers in China remained, there were the Nationalists (led by Chiang Kai-Shek) and the Communists (led by Mao Tse-Tung), it wouldn't be long before a Civil War would erupt in China. The war was a long, drawn-out conflict that lasted for around 9 years. This puts China in a weakened state militarily, in 1931 Japan who already conquered Korea as a result of the Russo-Japanese War invaded Manchuria. As they did, they put the last known Qing Emperor: Puyi in charge of the province. In 1936, Japan went a step further and decided to invade the rest of China, beginning with its ancient capital of Beijing. They captured Chiang Kai-Shek, putting the Chinese Civil War on hold as the 2 warring Chinese Powers had to put their differences aside and fight against the aggressive Japanese, thus we have the Second Sino-Japanese War: a short-lived conflict which got consumed into World War 2. As both the USA and the USSR forced the Japanese to surrender in 1945, things were quiet in China. Until March 31, 1946. The Chinese Civil War resumed, the Soviets aided the Communists there until May where they withdrew to give the Chinese Communists a Powerbase. At first, the fighting was sporadic, and the Nationalists (backed by the USA) were within striking distance of the city of Harbin (which was the capital of Japanese Occupied Manchuria) but the US high command said that laying siege to Harbin was a bad idea, and Chiang complies, this allowed the Communists to regroup and rearm and on March of 1947 the Communists went on the offensive. On October 1, 1949, Mao Tse-Tung declares himself as the Chairman of the new "People's Republic of China", by December of 1950 the Chinese Civil War ends and the losing Nationalists are forced to flee to Taiwan. With this, Democratic politicians have developed something called the "Domino Theory". Russia, Eastern Europe, and China are in the icy grip of Communism. Democratic nations of the USA and Western Europe now fear that the Communist "Plague" would spread throughout the world. So, this is when the USA and Western Europe develop the idea that they can defend the world from Communism. The first phase of this new move will in the Korean Peninsula. The Korean War '''Disclaimer: '''Here's the link to the war in more detail. For nearly 3 decades (after the Russo-Japanese War), Korea was in the icy grip of the Japanese Empire. After Japan surrenders and WW2 ends, Korea's future was left at a crossroads (like China after the Xinhai Rebellion). Either to become democratic or communist. But there was one problem, they were overseen by their respective occupiers (the USA and the USSR). Both sides also had a problem finding the right ruler as the USA put down a dictatorship, and the USSR had a hard time finding the right dictator, and they eventually find one in Kim Il-Sung. Once he was in charge, Sung wanted to unite the Korean Peninsula, despite warnings by the Soviets that they will not provide military aid if Sung went along with this. Sung goes ahead with his plan and invades the South. Seoul is captured and they drive the Southern Korean Army to the port town of Pusan. All of this in a matter of months, so it didn't take long for the USA and NATO to take action. The USA and other NATO forces come to aid South Korea to defend against the aggressive North Koreans. Some US forces aid the SKs to defend Pusan, while another operation was formed to take back Seoul from the NKs, the operations were a success and just as quickly as the NKs pushed the SKs, the SK-USA Coalition have pushed the NK's back to the 38th Parallel (and liberating Seoul), but as the Coalition pushed back the NKs, they went a step further and try to unite the Korean Peninsula themselves, they capture P'Yongyang and push the NKs all the way to the Korean-Chinese border. Upon hearing about the conflict in Korea, and fearing that the US would go after China next, Mao decides to help the NKs. With the aid of China, the NKs were able to beat back the SK-USA Coalition back to the 38th parallel, though Seoul was captured and liberated again. What seemed like a very quick moving war, turned into a stalemate that lasted for 3 years, and eventually, in 1953 the 2 sides agreed to a seize fire. But the crises in Asia wasn't finished yet, because in 1955 we'll see the beginning of the Vietnam War Vietnam War By November of 1955, Vietnamese forces were seeking independence. For a least a century, Vietnam was a colony of France (hence it's named French Indochina), like China and Korea it was also occupied by Japan in the chain of events which would lead to World War 2. After the War, Vietnam then was in a near state of civil war as the Vietnamese Army and French forces were trying to fight against Communist insurgency which was funded and aided by China and the USSR. The conflict was dragged out for a very long time, by 1963 the USA decides to aid the South Vietnamese army (as taking the Domino Theory seriously). But, the tide of the war didn't change in the favor of SV and the USA as a lot of the US-led operations such as "Rolling Thunder" and the "Tet Offensive" were total failures. As the war got worse for the US, a series of extreme protests (such as the Hippie Counter-Culture movement) were about ending the USA's involvement in Vietnam. In 1973, the USA officially ends its involvement in the Vietnam War, and 2 years later the South Vietnamese Army would be defeated as the North would capture Saigon (re-naming it Ho Chi Minh City). Boy, we covered a lot on this page, and it sounds that Communism has an edge here, doesn't it. Well, not all was well in the Communist world. Coming up on the next page, we'll cover the anti-communist uprisings in Eastern Europe which will bring the hold the USSR has on Eastern Europe into question. Click here to continue. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.